December 6, 2005

Hello,

The benefit last night was quite a success, the hall was sold-out and the audience seemed to really enjoy the (three hour!) show. It was a great pleasure to play music with Dr. John. His piano playing is unrivaled, he's definitely a national treasure. He put his gris-gris voodoo magic on my songs "Build A Levee", "Put The Law on You" and "Break Your Heart" and we did versions of "I Know How To Do It", "Ruler of My Heart", "Let The Good Times Roll", "Wash Mama Wash" and he even gave a rare performance on guitar to play "I Hear You Knockin" at my request.

So many special guests contributed to the night, John Sebastian taught me an old blues song, "Richland Woman" and we did that together, as well as "The House of The Rising Sun". I was also able to collaborate with a phenomenal cajun fiddler named Michael Doucet; he played beautiful accompaniment on "The Living". All the profits from the show will be given to the Gulf chapter of the Salvation Army to help in their ongoing relief efforts for the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. If you happened to be at this show, a heartfelt thanks for your donation and I hope you enjoyed the unique show.

Dr. John, Natalie and John Sebastian performing at the "Build A Levee" benefit.

You may also notice that we are adding content to the site this month. There is a new music feature to hear, "This House is On Fire" demo and final versions with visuals by Chaoskitty. The lyrics of "Retrospective" have been added. The year 2005 in the TIMELINE has been built-up. The song "She Devil" is available for you to hear, and the radio player (SOUND at the top of almost every page) has several new selections to play from various recent releases. The live performance of "I'm Not Gonna Beg" filmed in Paris 2002 and the video montage edited to "Owensboro" are now on the site. Plenty more is to follow in the coming weeks, so check in occasionally.

All for now.

Natalie